Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-03-09
CLErsLASDs FIrrisra slRrsDAr.
The Semi Centennial OF the Only President
Whose Name tsesnn WIN n

The Sem!-Centennisl OF the Oniy President |
Whose Name Degan with O.
The fttieth birthday, or semi-centennial,
OF the Democratic president and the only
president Of the United States whose name
has begun with c, which stands for one
hundred, is approaching, for it will fall on
March Is, the very next after st. Patrick's
Day, of ever joyful memory. So Queen
Victoria Is not having the jubilee business
all to herself, for this Is q jubilee year for
President Cleveland also, who 10 our cen'er-
NAL president, since ut the close OF his uSs'
term as chiei magistrate our present form of
government will have been in operation one
hundred years
The Congress OF the eConfederstions decreed
In September, 17SS, that the new form OF
| government should go into operation on the
! first Wednesday In March, which, in l7So
| fell on the 4th OF the month. Mr.. J. Ran
dolph Tucker, chairman of the judiciary
| committee in the two last Con crosses, has
said that he thinks the frs, wednesday of
March was chosen because the first day of
| that month that year fell on Sunday. as 1t
did, by the way, the year of Cleveland's
| Inauguration. Inc form of government
under the Continental Congress having
begun on March /, ISL, that being the date
| OF the completion OF the articles Of confedera.
ton between the states, as Mr.. Tucker said
| he found from the journals of the Continental
Congress MIR. Tucker thinks 1t was deemed
| best to continue it for the full eight years,
/ and SO let those elected to serve under 1t
complete their last full year Of service.
Besides Cleveland only three others OF our
| while holding the highest office in our land
| James X, Polk celebrated his SEM. .centenr ial
the first year of his term, in lSi5; Franklin
Pierce who, having been born November 23,
lsoi and inaugurated March 4, ls5S, cele-
brsted the fiftieth anniversary of his birth
l after he had been president nearly two year,,
ana Grant who WAS born April q, 1s22, anu
| was fifty years old when he was in the last
| year Of his first term as president
1t Is claimed that each Of the four who ~ 9
had q semicentennial birthday in tho execu.
| tive mansion WAS Democrat-Polk, Pierce,
| Grant and Cleveland, because the only vote
| General Grant ever cast before he was
| elected president, and he used to tell the
story, was for Buchanan and Breckenridge
| in 1887. That vote, he said, was also illegal,
| because not cast at General Grants place OF
| actual residence at that time. He was then
living in Missouri, not very far from St
l Louis, and had been on q visit TO that city on
election day in November, ls57. When on
his way home he paused in Carondele,, and
when asked by friend II he had voted he
said he had not, because he had been away
| from home all day but would vote II hi
| reached the polls nearest his residence in time
| "But you have no. time" urged the friend t,
whom he wss speaking, $50 you had bette
q | vote here" and Mr.. Grant followed his sdvic
1 nuA shciC SdsS LIS Noio tn6 D6uOCrdIl
a nominees for president and vice president
8 Mrs Grants father, Mr.. Dent, who died Q
b | an advanced age in the White House, Ii
q | lSI3, WAS Democrat to his latest hour, an
when, In the autumn OF that year, only abou
, month before his death, certain OF tn
u Northwestern states which had before bee
considered Republican stropgholdS wer
% | Democratic in local elections, Mr.. Dent the
z | confined TO his bed, rejoiced aloud as his sol
= l General Dent, read him the newspapers, an
asked, eagerly "Is 1t really true that q
| them states have gone Democratic -
Had Garfield lived he would have celebr
d ted his fftieth birthday while president II
i. he would have been fifty years old on N
10 vember 10, lsSl.
4. Cleveland is, therefore, except Grant, II
70 youngest man ever inaugurated president
y the United States.
Cleveland, by the way, has had a speci
% era to give him cause for re- joicing in each
4. the past five years, for in November, lss
ID | he v as elected governor of New York an
,e insugurated in that office in January, lss
=, In 1854 he was elected on November 4, ii
. president of the United States on March
y lSs5, he was inaugursted In that office, al
on juno 2, 1886, he was married to a mo
charming young lady, whose choice by hi
ss for "the first lady in our land' has bee
universally commented, and now, on Marc
Is, lss7, he will, with that lady, celebrate b
| jubilee birthday in the executive mansion.
u While the president will be fifty on Il
ls.h, 1t Ia worthy of note that his wife vi
* | not Do tWenty-three years old until y, an
L. his mother-in.law, Mrs. Folsom, is said TO
at only forty-Iour years old.
!, John Adams churiishly wrote OF Jefterso
=, when giving tho points Of difference betwe<
a. the latter as a president and himself, th
or while he held levees once eek ~ effersor
q. whole eight years was a levee," and tn
,k while he "dinsd a large company once
an | twice week Jefferson dined a dozen eve
mo- day" The Jefferson social policy in the
~. respects seems to be followed by his prese
IN worthy Democratic successor as president
re the United States.